New update on death row killer Christa Pike shared following her botched execution

Christa Pike’s lawyer has issued an update on her condition, almost a month after she survived two rounds of lethal injection.

On 30 September, Tennessee attempted to execute the death row killer for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

However, despite being injected with two doses of pentobarbital, Pike, 50, was shockingly still alive afterwards and was rushed to hospital.

She was unconscious on a ventilator for five days, and her attorneys didn’t expect her to survive.

But they said she woke up and began talking and walking with assistance, and she has since been discharged and is back at the Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Centre, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years.

On Wednesday (21 October), an attorney for Pike told TMZ that she’s ‘continuing to improve physically and is now able to walk more on her own’.

Pike’s speech has also reportedly improved, and she's now able to communicate more clearly and form full sentences.

Pike is reportedly ‘continuing to improve physically and is now able to walk more on her own’ (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

However, the outlet reports that despite making significant strides in her recovery, doctors are still trying to establish the extent of any lasting psychological and cognitive damage.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not confirmed what went wrong in the attempted execution; however, medical and lethal injection experts who have weighed in on the situation have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.

The health update comes after newly released audio from a 911 call reveals there was a delay in getting medical help for Pike following her failed execution because officials were unsure whether the request for help was genuine.

The recordings, shared by the Press Association, show that the first call came in at 8.40pm, and it was more than half an hour before prison officials affirmed it was real and began letting emergency responders through the prison gates.

One unidentified person said at 9.01pm: “Per supervisors here at the DEC (Department of Emergency Communications), we have been informed it is a false call. There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”

According to the update, Pike's speech has also improved (Tennessee Department of Correction)

Four minutes later, a responder reported: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in.

“They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”

It wasn’t until 9.11pm that the prison officials affirmed the call for help was legitimate, the calls show.

Pike’s lawyers said in a statement earlier this month: “While her physical recovery has been remarkable, significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured.

“Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain, and uncertainty of believing she was about to die.”

Questions still remain over Pike’s future, specifically whether the state will seek to make another attempt to execute her.

Pike’s lawyers have said that they will push for Republican governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.